HUGE FINANCIAL BOOST FOR WOMEN FOOTBALL

Veronica Gwaze
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THIS year’s Heart Women’s Soccer League winners could find themselves smiling all the way to the bank next year.
This comes against the backdrop of a huge cash injection in the next edition of the CAF Women’ Champions’ League, scheduled to be held in Morocco.
A US$150 000 purse has been pledged by CAF for each of the eight women’s teams to participate at the prestigious competition.
Winners of the competition stand to receive US$600 000 while the runners-up will pocket US$400 000.
Third and fourth-placed teams from each group will also pocket US$200 000 and US$150 000 on top of the participating fees.
“Each of the eight Africa Women Football Clubs that are participating in the CAF Women’s Champions League, in Morocco, will receive at least US$150 000 in prize money,” read a statement from CAF.
“CAF is committed to developing and growing women’s football in Africa and the objective of president Dr. Patrice Motsepe is to invest in Youth Academies for boys and girls and to continue increasing the prize monies of all CAF competitions to make them globally competitive and attractive.
“Since the inception of the CAF Women Champions’ League in 2021, Zimbabwe are yet to get representation. Only Black Rhinos Queens and Herentals have participated as far as the COSAFA Qualifiers.
“This could be the moment for domestic teams to compete for a chance to appear at the competition and get a massive financial boost.
“Further, such international contests serve as a platform for players to showcase their skills in the hope of landing international contracts.
“With four games still to play, defending champions Herentals Queens lead the log table with 64 points from 23 outings.
“Black Rhinos are second with the same number of points but an inferior goal difference to Herentals Queens. Chapungu are in third position with 61 points but have a game in hand.
“However, considering the current state of domestic women’s football, participation in such a competition will be a tall and almost impossible task.”
The Heart League chairperson Theressa Maguraushe acknowledges that a lot needs to be done if Zimbabwean clubs are to take part in such competitions.
“The figures involved are very attractive and enough motivation for us. However, gathering from Herentals’ performance and even our national team at COSAFA recently, we need to up our game.
“We have the talent and potential but we realised that our standards are way low as compared to other nations,” Maguraushe said.
Recently, the Walter Magaya-fronted Heart Group came on board as the principal sponsors of the women’s game by pledging a US$320 000 sponsorship package.
Conversely, the Zimbabwe Women Soccer League rebranded to The Heart Women Soccer League. Of the total package, US$200 000 was meant to see off the remaining three months of the season while US$120 00 was set aside for the maiden edition of The Heart Cup.